Feeding apparatus



Jan. 4, 1944. c. s. WALKER FEEDING APPARATUS Filed Feb.- 12', 1942 I INVENTOR. F/zar/as 61 Kai/(er I W MW %M" Patented Jam 4, 1944 UNITED FEEDING APPARATUS 'Charles S. Walker, Clearwater, Fla., assignor to Bronson C. Skinner, Dunedin, Fla.

'rApplication February 12, 1942, Serial No. 430,580

9 Claims.

The present invention relatesto feeding apparatus'and, more particularly, to' such'apparatus for feeding globular objects to relatively moving receivers at a receiving point. 7

A general object of the present invention is the provision of simple and economically constructed Skinner et al., No. 2,283,615, issued May 19, 194:2.

One problem is a tendency of such objects to feeding apparatus adapted efliciently to feed sub stantially globular objects, such as citrus fruit or the like, to moving receivers whereby they are accurately and securely located in receivingrecesses effectively to be carried to operating stations without damage and with the elimination of any necessity of a particular spacing of receiving recesses, speed of movement or timing thereof. Y Y

A more specific object of the invention is the provision of such feeding apparatus characterized by means adapted under certain conditions for rotating in a certain direction, relative to direction of movementof successive receiving recesses of a receiver; globular objects fed by gravity down an elevated way or chute whereby their movement is retarded and they are caused accurately and securely to be located in the receiving recesses without undue bouncing.

Other objects of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.

The invention accordingly comprises the fee-c.

' when it contacts the roller, be spunawayfrom it,

tures of construction, combination of elements,

which Fig. 1 is a side elevational view with parts in section and parts broken away of one modification of the present invention exemplifying one I type of receiver that may be used;

Fig. 2 is an end elevational view'with parts broken away and in section of thestructure shown in Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is an end elevational view of a modified .form of the invention characterized by a bank of feeding devices associated with a bank of receiving recesses.

Some of the diillcuities attendant upon placement of globular objects, such as oranges or the like, in moving cup-like receivers, especially those arising when citrus fruits are placed in such receivers to be carried to treating apparatus, have been pointed out in the United States patent of into anempty cup or receiving recess when the bounce out of the moving receivers. Where the feeding means comprises a chute, the objects may have a tendency to-bounce and become jammed between the side of the chute, or other fixed structuraand the. rim of a receiving recess of the moving receiver. Careful timing is also frequently required. I

The present invention efllciently overcomes to feed objects to areceiver having successive. I

cup-like recesses adapted to be moved continuously or intermittently.

The retard roller which may be inserted in an opening in the side of the elevated chute at the bottom thereof checks or breaks the fall of-the objects from the chute into the receiver, thus minimizing bouncing. Furthermore, the roller is, rapidly rotated, thus giving any object that may. contact it a reverse spin, and cause it to move away toward the opposite side of the chute. Thus, any object falling down the chute will,

and will repeatedly be caused to assu'mea position adjacent the opposite side of the chuteuntil it falls past the roller. Likewise, any object which hasdropped past the axis of the roller, and which rests, on the moving receiver with a tend ency to be carried thereby toward the roller, will upon contact with the roller be spun back from it, and be rolled back along the top of the receiver latter is presented, thus avoiding any tendency of the object to roll forward with the receiver;

without being properly located in a receiving recess or to be caught or jammed between the edge of the chute or adjacent stationary structure and the lip of a cup or receiving recess.

In the drawing like numerals refer to like parts throughout. As shown in Fig. 1, a receiver 18 i may be a cylinder ll fixedly mounted on a hori zontal axle if, supported by suitable framework It, and rotated by power applied through a pulley ll. The cylinder II has in its surface i5 i5 a number (six are shown by way of example) of cups or receiving recesses iB--.l6, which preferably are symmetrically located on the circumference of the cylinder as shown, although such symmetrical placement is not necessary. Each cup I is the proper size to receive any one of a ment of the receiver.

group of sized globular objects such as citrus fruits, or more particularly, an orange A.

This receiver l may cooperate with suitable mechanism for halving the fruit and extracting the juice, or otherwise operating thereon at succeeding stations, and the objects, e. g. oranges,

may be supplied from any suitable source which may include a sizer belt over which the fruit is run to and under a sizer roll, then down a sloping way wherein it is arranged in single file, all as understood in the art. 1

The fruit, aligned as just described, may then be picked up by any suitable conveyance, such as an endless belt [1, carried to a. chute l8, and deposited therein in some suitable fashion, such as by spilling off the belt as it travels over a roller l3, which may be utilized to drive the endless belt.

The chute it has an entrance 20, a delivering end 2i terminating just above the cylindrical receiver I ii at a receiving point, and an intermediate section 22 down which the object travel by gravity from the entrance to the delivering end 2 I. Obviously the section 22 need not be located vertically as shown. It is merely necessary that the chute be so shaped as to provide a gravity feeding way.

At the delivering end 21 01' the chute, a portion of the trailing side of the chute is removed and a retard roller 23 is inserted, with its axis located substantially parallel to an element of the surface or the receiver in. Thi roller 23 is spaced from the trailing side of the chute a distance such as to permit any of the fed objects to move by gravity past it to the'receiver. The distance between any portion of the surfaceof a cup or recess l8 and an opp sed portion of the surface of the roller 23 is slightly more than the distance between that portion of the cup surface and the opposed portion of the protruding surface of any object to be located therein; so that the objects will pass freely beneath the roller when they are properly seated in the receiving cups and the latter carried away therefrom by move- The retard roller 23 may be fixedly mounted on a shaft 24, rotated y power applied through a'beltedpulley 2B and journaled to the chute II as shown. The roller 23 is rotated fast enough to give it a peripheral velocity of not less and preferably greater than the linear velocity of the cups lB-Ifl. In practice, the roller IS, the receiver I 0, and the retard roller 23 are all preferably driven by the same power source, the

relative speeds being determined-by pulleys of proper size in the manner well known inthe art. This practice is merely the simplest and the most economical, and is not essential to the invention.

The retard roller 23 is preferably a hyperboloid as illustrated in Fig. 2. When the roller is so shaped, it has the further advantage of tending to center the objects regardless of the shape of the chute i8, so that they fall into the middle of the cups to be properly located and securely seated therein. The retard roller 23 is preferably made of hard or unyielding material, but it may be formed of or surfaced with a somewhat resilient material, such as rubber or the 'like. Furthermore, the roller 23 has been-shown as having its shaft. fixedly located by way of examv ple. It might also-be fioatingly'locatad, such as by location of the-ends of shaft 24 inhorizontal, vertical or upwardly and outwardly sloping slots,

with bias applied by either a spring or gravity as desired. Such a mounting would more readily permit over-sized oranges to pass and be fed to the receiver.

Such feeding apparatus may be used to advantags in feeding a plural banked receiver, such as IIO, having several staggered rows of receiving cups H8, 2I6, I", as shown in Fig.3. When the feeding apparatus is used with this kind of a receiver, similar to that proposed in the aboveidentifled application for reasons therein indicated, there is no need for carefully timed feeding mechanism usually employed to deposit; an object in each pocket in properl'y'timed relation.

To bring the objects to chutes Ill, 2| 8 and ii! there is preferably a single endless belt H1 run: ning over a broad roller H9. The oranges are deposited into chutes .ill, 2 and ill, which may be formed by the provision'of dividing partitions 26, 26 in a wide chute 'llli. Retard rollers 23-23 arelocated and operated at the bottoms of chutes H3, 2i! and Ill similar to the location and operation of roller 23 with respect to chute I8. Obviously the working retard roller surfaces for the plurality of chutes may be provided on a single roller.

Since each retard roller will permit objects to drop into empty cups only as the" latter come beneath the end of each chute, no other timing mechanism is needed, regardless of how the receiving recesses are arranged in any row, and regardless of how the rows are arranged with respect to each other.

It will be understood that the receiver need not be of the drum type as shown. by example. A continuous or endless moving belt having receiving cups or recesses depressed into or provided in its surface with a reach thereof, located beneath the feeding device of the present invention so as to move the cups or recesses therepast in a direction from theleading side of the chute to thetrailing side thereof where the retard roller is located, may be employed within the scope of the present invention.

It will accordingly be seen that the objects 'set forth above and those indicated thereinafter are efficiently attained by the apparatus of the present invention and since certain changes may be made in the above construction and differvent; embodiments of the invention could be made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

It is also to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein deway down which the objects travel in single file tive motion between saidway means to maintain a supply 1-Way, and a rotatedretardroller at the bottom of the-way adapted reversely to salt contacts said roller.

scribed, and all statements of the scope of the invention which, as a matter of language, might be said to fall therebetween.

Having described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A feeding device comprising, in combination, a receiver having receiving recesses adapted to receive globular objects dropped thereinto, a

to a receiving point, means for providing relaand said receiver, of objects in said spin each object 2. A feeding device comprising, in combination,

jects travel in single file-t a receiving point, means for-providing relative motion between said chute and said receiver, means to maintain a supply of objects to the chute,a retard rollerlocated on the trailing side of the chute atits bottom, and means to rotate said roller in a die rection so that its surface adjacent the path of the objects down said chute travels upwardly.

3. A feeding device comprising, in combination, a receiver having receiving recesses adapted toreceive globular objects, a chute down which the objects travel in single file to a receiving point, means for providing relative motion between said chute and said receiver, means to maintain a supply of objects to the chute, a retard roller located on the trailing side of the chute at the bottom, and means to rotate said roller in a direction so that its surface-adjacent the path of the objects down said chute travels upwardly and at a peripheral linear speed not less than the linear speed of the receiver at the receiving point.

4. A feeding device comprising, in combination, a movable receiver having cup-shaped recesses in its surface adapted to receive globular objects, a chute down which the objects are adapted to fall in single file, means to maintain a supplyof objects in said chute, a retard roller located in the trailing side of the chute at the bottom, and means to rotate said roller in a direction so that its surface adjacent the path of the objects down said chute travels upwardly and at a peripheral velocity not lessthan the pe- 1 ripheral velocity of the receiver.

5. A feeding device comprising, in combination, a movable receiver having cup-shaped recesses in its surface adapted to receive globular objects, a chute down which the objects are adapted to fall in single file, means to maintain a supply of objects in said chute, and a rotated retard roller located in the trailing side of the chute at the bottom spaced a distance from the leading side of said chute sufllciently to permit downward passage of the objects and located sufliciently aboe said receiver to permit the objects freely to pass underneath said roller when the objects are properly seated in the receiving cups,

6. A feeding device comprising, in combination, a movable receiver having cup-shaped recesses in its surface, a vertical chute terminating just above the surface of said receiver, means to maintain a supply of globular objects in single roller inserted in the spaced a distance from file in the chute, and a trailing side of said'chute the leading side of said chute suihciently to permit downward passage of the objects and looated sufficiently above said receiver to permit the 1 objects to pass freely underneath said .roller when the objects are properly seated in the receiving cups, and means to rotate said roller in a direction sothat, its surface adjacent the path of the objects down said chute travels upwardly and at a peripheral velocity not less than the peripheral velocity of the receiver.

7. A feeding device comprising, in combination, a movable receiver having cup-shaped re- 7 cesses in its surface, a chute down which globular objects are adapted to fall in single file, means to maintain a supply of the objects in said chute, and a hyperboloid roller inserted in the trailing side of said chute spaced 9, distance from the leading side of said chute sufficiently to permit downward passage of the objects and located sufficiently above said receiver to permit the obfreely underneath said roller when jects to pass the objects are properly seated in the receiving p tion so that its surface adjacent the path of the objects down said chute travels upwardly and at a peripheral velocity not less than the peripheral velocity of the receiver.

8. A feeding device comprising, in combination, a moving receiver having a plurality of rows of staggered receiving cups, a plurality of chutes each adapted to feed globular objects in single file toone row associated therewith, each chute terminating just above the surface of said receiver, means to maintain .a supply of globular objects in the chute,

parallel to an element of the receiver, and means to rotate said rollers in a direction so that their surfaces adjacent the path of the objects down said chute travel upwardly and at a peripheral velocity of at least the linear velocity of the receiver. v

9. A feeding device comprising, in, combination, a moving receiver having a plurality of rows of staggered receiving recesses adapted to receive globular objects, a plurality of chutes each adapted to feed the objects in single file to one row of receivers associated therewith, means for maintaining a supply of objects in the chutes, a retard roller inserted in the trailing side of the chutes with its axis parallel to an element of the receiver, and means to rotate said roller in a direction so that its surface adjacent the path of the objects down said chute travels upwardly and at a peripheral velocity of at least the linear velocity of the receiver.

CHARLES S. WALKER.

and means to rotate said roller in a direca retard roller inserted in the trailing side of each chute with its axis' 

